A TIME TO READ, LEARN, GROW AND SHARE

Facilitators: Rotates

Location: Youth Group Room

Time: 10:15 a.m. – 12 p.m.

Book Club Meetings are held on the 4th Wednesday.

September – Evicted by Matthew Desmond

Wednesday, September 27th @ 10:15 a.m.

– from iTunes Preview – WINNER OF THE 2017 PULITZER PRIZE GENERAL NON-FICTION & NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

From Harvard sociologist and MacArthur “Genius” Matthew Desmond, a landmark work of scholarship and reportage that will forever change the way we look at poverty in America

In this brilliant,heartbreaking book, Matthew Desmond takes us into the poorest neighborhoods of Milwaukee to tell the story of eight families on the edge. Arleen is a single mother trying to raise her two sons on the $20 a month she has left after paying for their rundown apartment. Scott is a gentle nurse consumed by a heroin addiction. Lamar, a man with no legs and a neighborhood full of boys to look after, tries to work his way out of debt. Vanetta participates in a botched stickup after her hours are cut. All are spending almost everything they have on rent, and all have fallen behind.

The fates of these families are in the hands of two landlords: Sherrena Tarver, a former schoolteacher turned inner-city entrepreneur, and Tobin Charney, who runs one of the worst trailer parks in Milwaukee. They loathe some of their tenants and are fond of others, but as Sherrena puts it, “Love don’t pay the bills.” She moves to evict Arleen and her boys a few days before Christmas.

Even in the most desolate areas of American cities, evictions used to be rare. But today, most poor renting families are spending more than half of their income on housing, and eviction has become ordinary, especially for single mothers. In vivid, intimate prose, Desmond provides a ground-level view of one of the most urgent issues facing America today. As we see families forced into shelters, squalid apartments, or more dangerous neighborhoods, we bear witness to the human cost of America’s vast inequality—and to people’s determination and intelligence in the face of hardship.

Based on years of embedded fieldwork and painstakingly gathered data, this masterful book transforms our understanding of extreme poverty and economic exploitation while providing fresh ideas for solving a devastating, uniquely American problem. Its unforgettable scenes of hope and loss remind us of the centrality of home, without which nothing else is possible.

Wednesday, May 24th @ 10:15 a.m.

The Handmaid’s Tale

by Margaret Atwood

From Amazon –

The seminal work of speculative fiction from the Booker Prize-winning author, soon to be a Hulu series starring Elizabeth Moss, Samira Wiley, and Joseph Fiennes.

The Handmaid’s Tale is a novel of such power that the reader will be unable to forget its images and its forecast. Set in the near future, it describes life in what was once the United States and is now called the Republic of Gilead, a monotheocracy that has reacted to social unrest and a sharply declining birthrate by reverting to, and going beyond, the repressive intolerance of the original Puritans. The regime takes the Book of Genesis absolutely at its word, with bizarre consequences for the women and men in its population.
The story is told through the eyes of Offred, one of the unfortunate Handmaids under the new social order. In condensed but eloquent prose, by turns cool-eyed, tender, despairing, passionate, and wry, she reveals to us the dark corners behind the establishment’s calm facade, as certain tendencies now in existence are carried to their logical conclusions. The

Handmaid’s Tale is funny, unexpected, horrifying, and altogether convincing. It is at once scathing satire, dire warning, and a tour de force. It is Margaret Atwood at her best.

Wednesday, April 26th @ 10:15 a.m.

Mister Owita’s Guide to Gardening: How I Learned the Unexpected Joy of a Green Thumb and an Open Heart

by Carol Wall

From Amazon –

A true story of a unique friendship between two people who had nothing—and ultimately everything—in common.

Carol Wall, living in a lily-white neighborhood in Middle America, is at a crossroads in her life. Her children are grown; she has successfully overcome illness; her beloved parents are getting older. One day she notices a dark-skinned African man tending her neighbor’s yard. His name is Giles Owita. He bags groceries at the supermarket. He comes from Kenya. And he’s very good at gardening.

Before long Giles is transforming not only Carol’s yard, but her life. Though they are seemingly quite different, a caring bond grows between them. But Carol and Giles both hold long-buried secrets that, when revealed, will cement their friendship forever.

Reader’s Guide is included in the book – Kindle and book versions.

Wednesday, MARCH 22 @ 10:15 a.m.

Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis

by J.D. Vance

From Amazon –

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER, NAMED BY THE TIMES AS ONE OF “6 BOOKS TO HELP UNDERSTAND TRUMP’S WIN”

“You will not read a more important book about America this year.”—The Economist

“Essential reading.”—David Brooks, New York Times

From a former marine and Yale Law School graduate, a powerful account of growing up in a poor Rust Belt town that offers a broader, probing look at the struggles of America’s white working class Hillbilly Elegy is a passionate and personal analysis of a culture in crisis—that of white working-class Americans. The decline of this group, a demographic of our country that has been slowly disintegrating over forty years, has been reported on with growing frequency and alarm, but has never before been written about as searingly from the inside. J. D. Vance tells the true story of what a social, regional, and class decline feels like when you were born with it hung around your neck.

The Vance family story begins hopefully in postwar America. J. D.’s grandparents were “dirt poor and in love,” and moved north from Kentucky’s Appalachia region to Ohio in the hopes of escaping the dreadful poverty around them. They raised a middle-class family, and eventually their grandchild (the author) would graduate from Yale Law School, a conventional marker of their success in achieving generational upward mobility.

But as the family saga of Hillbilly Elegy plays out, we learn that this is only the short, superficial version. Vance’s grandparents, aunt, uncle, sister, and, most of all, his mother, struggled profoundly with the demands of their new middle-class life, and were never able to fully escape the legacy of abuse, alcoholism, poverty, and trauma so characteristic of their part of America. Vance piercingly shows how he himself still carries around the demons of their chaotic family history.

A deeply moving memoir with its share of humor and vividly colorful figures, Hillbilly Elegy is the story of how upward mobility really feels. And it is an urgent and troubling meditation on the loss of the American dream for a large segment of this country.

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Latest from the UUA – Sanctuary Seekers

Sliding across the church’s hardwood floors with a squeal, 3-year-old David is contentedly unaware of the gravity of his new living situation inside All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church in downtown Colorado Springs. He gets all the apple juice he wants and there are always cookies in stock — a toddler’s dream. But for David’s father, Elmer Peña Peña, 37, staying at the church for the foreseeable future is more like holding off a nightmare.

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Services 11:00 A.M.

October 1, 2017 "Why I Do This Work—Still" by Carol Carter Walker. Ms. Walker is here with us this weekend not only to deliver this morning’s message, but also as facilitator of the “Beyond Categorical Thinking” Workshop that will be held in the afternoon, after a lunch here at the church. In describing her message for this worship service she writes: “There have been many ups and downs in my journey toward Beloved Community. I've been tempted to leave but I find myself re-committing instead. This recommitment has many parallels to the story of UUSV—as it once again prepares itself for a new settled ministry.”

Carol Carter Walker has been a Unitarian Universalist (UU) for 30 years, beginning as a charter member of the now closed Sojourner Truth Congregation in Washington, DC.She is currently a member of Paint Branch UU Church in Adelphi, MD, a close-in suburb of Washington, DC. During that time she has held many leadership positions at the congregational, Joseph Priestly District, Central East Region, and at the denominational level. Included in this long list of important work we especially note that she has been a member of the Boards of Trustees of both her former and current congregations, and recently ended her second term as both Trustee and Worship Associate at Paint Branch. She is currently serving as a member of the Joseph Priestley (JPD) Board.

October 8, 2017 "Listening" by Rev. Russ Savage. In this age of divisiveness and tribalism, there are plenty of ways to receive and send messages. We tune in to our chosen medium, whether it be Fox News or NPR, to learn what is going on and get a slant on it. Social media such as Facebook and Twitter give us the means to spread it further and add our own twist. We have plenty of ways to tell others what we think and feel. But how much do we listen to others to try to understand how they think and feel? Let’s examine the subject of listening.